"Just Say: No, Thank You"

Early morning on June 20, 2010 at my office desk was an envelope from a bank, which is not my depository bank. Surprisingly, when I opened the envelope it contains a statement of account for a visa card. The sole entry is a charge for an annual membership fee.

I immediately dialed the bank's hotline, followed the voice prompt and finally was entertained by a customer service officer. After the standard identity verification, I immediately raised a complaint for charging me the membership. The charge, as I explained is arbitrary and whimsical. I had never activated, moreso used the card since it was given to me by the issuing bank.

The customer service officer explained their point. He said, with an arabic intonation that upon the issuance of the card in my name, it automatically enlist my name as a member. Being a member, they charge a membership fee, which in my case was waived during the first year. Now, this second year of membership, they will be charging the fee.

I agree their argument that anyone issued with a credit card by an issuing bank entitles one to be a member. However, I threw up these rebuttal questions to him: since i had not activated my card, am I not considered an inactive member? In any professional or socio-civic organization, can an organization compel an inactive member or any member for that matter to pay their membership dues?

Instead of directly answering my questions, he then proceeds to saying that this is a matter of their imposed policy. I need to pay the dues on or before July 4, 2010.

Calmly I then told him, no I will not pay. I know that this call has been recorded and now I will challenge you to forward my account to your recovery or legal department because I will not pay this membership due.

He then ask me if I really want to cancel my visa account to which I replied yes. I have not even activated my account despite repeated calls received from your bank insisting me to activate my card.

Finally, he told me that he had initiated a request to cancel my account with their bank. He further said that another person will call me in two or three days time, if none I may call back their hotline number on the fourth day, which is on June 24, 2010.

Today, June 22, 2010 I received a call from the bank. This time a lady. She again insisted me to activate my account with a promise that they will waive the membership fee. My instant reply is no. She then said that the waived membership fee plus the benefits the cardmember enjoys was just put to waste. She insisted that I am privileged to enough to have their card for free membership for the next 12 months.

I just calmly asked her that was it a lost opportunity for me or your bank's chance to earn from me? In the first place, I already promised myself to rid of any credit cards. I am a credit card free person right now.

End of conversation. Cancellation of my visa account becomes final.

I am sharing this experience to everyone thinking that I am not the only victim of this policy. All faithful readers of this blogs, your loved ones, or even friends had or may encounter the same situation.

Also, I would like to prove to everyone that we can all survive without that plastic money. All you need to do is to be content.

One of the advocacies for my blogposts is to teach everyone contentment. For the Bible says that contentment plus godliness is great gain.

God bless you all!!!

Not More, Not Less

"...give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, "who is the Lord?" or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God." -Prov. 30:8b-9-

From television shows to video messages and other blog on the internet, and even my observations of people around this past few days there is one subject that has impacted my devotional--getting rich and greed.

There was this television show that invited a speaker to speak about the way to amass wealth and so many things were being given as tips. People around me are busy engaging in activities that may augment their day job income. But, there were also messages that reminds me of how greed infiltrated the society that we are living in. I was even led to the aforementioned Bible verse.

Do not get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with earning extra or even amassing wealth. However, the motive of doing so or even the amount of time spent on such activities must be checked.

Let us delve first on the motive. Do you want to earn extra so you can live a luxurious lifestyle indulging in activities that are tagged by the society as for the "rich and famous?" Or you may just want your children or family to enjoy what are the latest trends in the society? Or you just want to amass more wealth for the future of your children?

If these are your motives, can you imagine how you may have been spending the 24-hour day that you have. These motives are noble on the surface as it is for the benefit for your family. The reality is that these motives ruin your personal and family life. No wonder that delinquents are increasing in number because parents are spending less time with their children.

This we have to reflect. Which one is more important your physical or spiritual satisfaction? We must at least balance both. As Jesus taught us by saying "man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from God." This means that we have to feed both the lust of our bodies for material things and the joy and peace--through the communion with God--that our spirit needs.

Ones motive then should be to share that wealth, if it exceeds your needs. However one must also be careful if the time you have been spending in wealth building should not come in the way of your activities that will feed your spirituality. The time that you fellowship with both your biological and spiritual families, as well as your personal communion with the Lord.

At the end of the day, what is paramount is to live a life in moderation and contentment. How do we determine what is moderate? Moderation is one where you will not be so rich that you may be enjoying the abundance of material things that you may feel you do not need God nor being too poor that you may profane the name of God by stealing. Having said that, contentment in life is the key.

The Boat is Sinking

"The boat is sinking, group yourselves into..." there goes that famous line of one of those parlor games played at parties or any group or organizational activities. But the succeeding paragraphs you may read from hereunder is not all about the said game. Rather it is all about the present economic boat everyone riding in.

The last couple of days, there were a number of people whom I had conversation about this global economic situation. Two of these I know personally and some two others were strangers whom I met in a restaurant during lunch break and another one at the place where I wait for my car lift.

One common denominator in those conversations is about the sinking economic boat. All these guys whom I had good conversations with are in one accord as their gut feel led them to conclude that economy is worsening. With the news of Greece and other debt-laden countries, the economic boat has yet to reach the sea bed of recession.

As my share of the conversation, I agreed with them. They also concurred with my opinion that the main culprit of this sinking is overspending. Living beyond ones means led one to overspend, then to over-borrow until one day repayment terms is inevitably breached, hence the problem.

How can a country or the whole world fell into this problem of overspending and over-borrowing? The answer is so simple. Because most individuals, yes you and me and most of the political leaders are not living the principle of contentment that the Word of God taught. The same word written by Paul which states that "contentment with godliness is great gain."

You and me make up our family. Our families make up one community. Several communities make up cities, and cities a country. Several countries then make up the world. So what the world is into right now is a reflection of how you and me live our own lives.

Simply put, unless you and me would change our attitudes in handling our resources nothing will happen to our families. If our families are problematic, how can we contribute to the good of the community or our city or our country. If a number of countries, like what is happening today is in a problematic situation, it reflects the health of the world.

Therefore, it is time that churches around the world, and individuals who are gifted to teach the ways of God should do so. It is time for the people of God to rise and shine in this dark state of the world.

This is one of my motivation to keep on writing about things that teach people how to better handle their finances.

To all those who are following my blog posts, accept my sincerest apologies for my failure to keep it running for several weeks. I have been so busy with the graduation of my eldest daughter. The preparations for her going home to Philippines and some photography assignments kept me busy.

No matter how busy I am, I will try to keep this blog alive for those faithful readers. I will not allow that my blog will sink and be drowned to oblivion.